ogg vs mp3 in gramaphone folder

[frau kaleun]

I'm curious if there are any advantages/disadvantages to using one file type over the other in the gramaphone folder.

Also wondering if, in addition to adding files there, it's safe to delete any .ogg or .mp3 files that were installed with the stock game or GWX3 if I want to take them out of the mix?

Thanks!

[Weiss Pinguin]

IIRC .ogg has better quality vs. mp3, at least according to Kpt. Buna

[Oneshot/Onekill]

A vast majority of .ogg files are more stable than .mp3 files. (less corrupted files).

.mp3 files from what i've found seem to be a little louder.

[TarJak]

Personally I have both in my Grammophone folder and can really not see much appreciable difference that cannot be attributed to the source or the settings used when the file was created. I can;t comment on stability of either format as I personally have had no problem with file corruptions in either format when using files I've created myself or files I have received from other sources.

Sound quality of both formats depends on the source and what quality settings were used when the file was created.

As to the actual differences .ogg compresses data at a variable bit rate whilst MP3 uses a constant bit rate. If you are copying chunks of silence into MP3 format, the compression bit rate stays the same as if you were compressing the sound of an entire orchestra. But if you are copying chunks of silence into Ogg, your compression rate will drop to nothing. The rate varies with the need.

Thus .ogg uses a more efficient method of compression than MP3.

This does a good job of explaining most of the key differences in laymans terms: http://cd-burning-software-review.to...ile-types.html

If you want to get a little more technical then check this out: http://www.patheticcockroach.com/mpam4/index.php?p=16
The conclusions section here says it all.

Considering an audible range from 20 Hz to 18 kHz, there is probably no audible difference between MP3 224 kbps and MP3 with higher bitrates, and there is probably no audible difference between Ogg q4 and Ogg with a higher quality.

We are not able to propose MP3-Ogg equivalences, because at an equivalent bitrate, Ogg preserves a wider range of frequencies than MP3 but tends to modify the original sound (even if this doesn't seem audible to us) more than MP3. We didn't expect such a result so we haven't been able to analyze it properly and as deeply as it should be.

Google is your friend.

[Sailor Steve]

As TJ said, they both sound about the same. Some complaints were made in the past that sometimes MP3s skip to the next song before the last one is done. Others have said they've never had that problem.

Wav files work perfectly well too. They just take up a lot more space.

[irish1958]

The advantage of MP3 files is that you can change the volume to suit your install. There may be a program to do this with ogg files and wave files, but I don't know of one. You can change the volume of wave files with the windows program, but in 25% steps.
Some programs will let you make MP3 files with a variable bit rate; when I have done this, I haven't found much, if any, reduction in file size. Perhaps, this is because I have only converted loud files.
I have found some problems with mp3 files in the game; skipping, incomplete play, and occasionally, no play at all.
For that reason, I have always used FileFactory to convert all my mp3 files to ogg.
If someone knows of a good (i.e. free) program to change the volume of ogg files, I would like to know.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Some complaints were made in the past that sometimes MP3s skip to the next song before the last one is done. Others have said they've never had that problem.

The fact remains the problem has been reported on more than a few occasions.

My advice would be to stick with ogg.vorbis.